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- [00:00]
Emily Gracie
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing industries across the globe. But what happens when this technology captures not just your job, but your face and your voice? For meteorologists on the front lines of weather reporting, AI has created both peril and possibility. Today we're going off the radar with two weather professionals whose careers have been dramatically reshaped by AI image technology. One as a victim, one as a pioneer. We'll reveal the dark side. How criminals weaponize digital footprints to create convincing fakes. We'll share practical strategies to safeguard your online presence and reclaim control of your digital identity.
- [00:39]
Bree Smith
There's a lot I think that needs to be done to get us from a reactive place when it comes to artificial intelligence to an intentional place when it comes to AI.
- [00:50]
Emily Gracie
But we'll also explore the horizon of innovation. How the same technology that can cause harm is being harnessed by forward thinking meteorologists to revolutionize severe weather alerts and potentially save lives during critical weather events.
- [01:03]
Amy Freeze
The more we understand it and the more we figure out ways to protect ourselves is really our only course of action because a lot of times there's nobody to stand up and help us.
- [01:13]
Emily Gracie
I'm meteorologist Emily Gracey and you're listening to off the Radar, a production of the National Weather Desk. On the show, we dig deep into topics about weather, climate, the ocean, space, and much more. Our goal is to help you better understand the weather and to love it as much as we do.
- [01:29]
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- [02:11]
Emily Gracie
Artificial intelligence has found its way into every corner of our daily lives. Sometimes it's helpful, like using ChatGPT to assist with tedious writing tasks at work. Other times it can be highly controversial. Like like when AI generated images and deepfake videos depict people or events that never happened. This ventures into the ethical gray areas surrounding artificial intelligence. Photos or Videos of real people in fabricated situations can have devastating impacts, isolating individuals from friends and family, destroying careers, or even triggering diplomatic crises between nations. More recently, AI technology has infiltrated a new frontier. Weather forecasting. Today's guests are both former local TV meteorologists. Bree Smith has faced the unthinkable. Someone used AI to create deep fake images and videos of her in an attempt to extort money from her fans and followers. But now she's transforming her trauma into advocacy, empowering others to protect their digital identities. In contrast, meteorologist Amy Fries is pioneering new approaches to public weather alerts. By creating and controlling an AI avatar of herself, she's harnessing the very technology that threatened her colleague. Two meteorologists, two radically different experiences with the same technology. Bree confronted her worst AI nightmare when her image was weaponized without consent. While Amy believes weather forecasters can embrace this technology proactively, taking control before someone else does. Whether you're an AI enthusiast or deeply skeptical of these emerging tools, after today's episode, you'll find yourself looking at the weather forecast with new eyes, appreciating both the human expertise and evolving technology that work together to help us prepare for whatever tomorrow's skies may bring.
- [04:00]
Bree Smith
Brie Smith, thank you for coming on to talk about this today. This is a really difficult topic for you. It's very personal.
- [04:05]
Emily Gracie
But you've been on the national news, and I think people are learning a lot about what can go terribly wrong when it comes to your image, your likeness, and your.
- [04:16]
Bree Smith
Your personal life being impacted by this.
- [04:19]
Emily Gracie
Can you tell me how artificial intelligence was used to replicate you in a really negative way?
- [04:27]
Bree Smith
This started last October, so about six, seven months. And one of the biggest challenges is that it has evolved with time. So the initial encounter, I got an email from someone who said they had received a direct message from someone pretending to be me. So I didn't know this person get an email from this guy and he says, hey, Bri, I just want you to know I think I've been contacted by an imposter, and I'm not actually sure the real way to talk to the real you. And I wrote him back and I said, I don't know you. I've never messaged you. It wasn't me. I'm so sorry. Please report and block it. And then he wrote me back and he said, I just want you to know I think it might have been your husband, because this person had pictures that only a husband would have. And I wrote back and I said, I can assure you that's not real pictures. Pictures that a husband would have don't exist. My husband doesn't have that. My husband wouldn't do that. Again, I'm so sorry. You've been targeted by an imposter. Report and block it. And then he wrote me for a third time and said, I just want you to know that they had pictures and video that were very convincing. The pictures had my face on someone else's semi nude body and the video was totally clothed. There was nothing in the video, but it was clearly a video that someone had ripped from my social media and they had distorted my voice and to make it sound like I was like confirming it was me, like, it's me. It's really Bri. You can really trust this as a way to try to manipulate this person into sending money. Um, and so that's how this started. And unfortunately it has grown. And the tactics that are being used by these imposters have also evolved over time. Um, and I still don't even know who's behind it.
- [06:18]
Emily Gracie
So you live in Tennessee and you've become very familiar over time with kind of what's legal and what's not.
- [06:24]
Bree Smith
Yeah.
- [06:25]
Emily Gracie
And it's kind of alarming, right?
- [06:26]
Bree Smith
The. The leeway that people have to do.
- [06:29]
Emily Gracie
Something like this and the ability to.
- [06:31]
Bree Smith
Get away with it because they may not even reside in the same state. State that you live in or even the same country.
- [06:35]
Amy Freeze
Right.
- [06:36]
Bree Smith
When it first happened to me, I mean, I was shocked. I was traumatized when I went to my employer at the time and said.
- [06:43]
Amy Freeze
What do we do?
- [06:44]
Bree Smith
That's when I learned that it wasn't illegal, that in the state of Tennessee, using AI or another computer program to take your face and digitally alter it, even if you were a child in an intimate way, was not illegal. And so I was able. There was a bill that had come forward for the legislature making it illegal that you are not allowed to create and distribute computer generated intimate imagery of any person in the state of Tennessee, which is a duh. Like, it was a total bipartisan. Everybody was for it. Like, of course you can't do that.
- [07:18]
Emily Gracie
Did this factor into you leaving the broadcast meteorology industry stepping out of the limelight?
- [07:24]
Bree Smith
I would say, you know, it's definitely been a factor in all of the things that have happened in my life over the last seven months. You know, I was going to ChatGPT. I was going to AI and saying, what do you do if someone uses AI to impersonate you? Like, what do I do? It feels like whack a mole. Like, I'm Trying to chase these things, but they pop up faster than I can report them and to not know who's behind them.
- [07:50]
Emily Gracie
So Tennessee has made some strides. Do you know anything about other states or nationwide laws?
- [07:56]
Bree Smith
You know, state by state? This has been happening at a different level. And then the Take It down act passing federally was huge. To really set the standard that you can't do these things or you have to remove them pretty quickly. There's a lot, I think, that needs to be done to get us from a reactive place when it comes to artificial intelligence to an intentional place when it comes to AI.
- [08:24]
Emily Gracie
In your opinion, is there a place for AI avatars in the broadcast meteorology world?
- [08:32]
Bree Smith
I think there could be, but. And, you know, my personal experience plays into this. I think that we have to be very slow. Once you give your digital self away, you know, it's hard to unring a bell.
- [08:52]
Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited to have Amy Fries on the show today. A name that I've been familiar with for, I don't know, 20 years, because we've both worked in this industry as female broadcast meteorologists. You, you know, soared to the top, and I kind of stayed at this.
- [09:05]
Amy Freeze
I'm a fan of yours. I love the podcast. I'm so happy to meet you in person, Emily.
- [09:10]
Bree Smith
I know. Well, kind of in person. We'll get there in 3D one day maybe. But you're doing some really innovative things. So I. I reached out and I said, I want to talk about this. I want to talk about. You're doing stuff that nobody's ever done before in this realm of weather communication. So we're going to get into amyfreeze, AI, But I want to get some background on you, first of all, because you. I was stalking your LinkedIn this morning and noticed, like, an excessive amount of education and a lot of, you know, stops across the country along the way. So give me a little brief background on what you've been doing for the past 20, 30 years.
- [09:44]
Amy Freeze
All right. Well, freeze is my real last name. I started that way, but I did not grow up wanting to be a meteorologist. Oh, I did not grow up that way. I'm actually from the Midwest. Today I'm in Utah because I was visiting my mother. So you see the mountains in the background. But I was actually raised in Southern Indiana on the sunny side of Louisville, I like to say, and that's where I grew up. When I finished high school, I went out west and went to school on a cheerleading scholarship. I thought I wanted to be A lawyer or a writer. I did a lot of journalism work. I thought I wanted to be a writer for the Wall Street Journal of the Boston Globe and write about small factional wars, nothing to do with weather. However, I fell in love in college, wanted to get out a little bit quicker. And so I went to my professors and this is a great broadcast joke, but they said, if you just skip the ethics classes, you'll be out and you'll have your degree and you'll be good to go. And so that's what I did. I went out of the journalism track into the broadcast, and boom. I was a broadcast major. And so I had to have a internship. Went to Portland, Oregon, started an internship, and one thing led to another and they said, we need someone to do the meteorologist. And in walked Amy Freeze. The rest is sort of history. And as you mentioned, education played a huge role in it. They chose me because of my last name, but I actually started my education at that point and never looked back. I was like, oh, I was born for this. This is good. And I started taking all the classes. And really the creme de la creme was when I went to Portland, Oregon. No, no. I was Portland, Denver. I was in Philly. I went to Philadelphia. And part of NBC's benefit package at the time was you could get your schooling paid for. I went. I literally said, what's the most expensive school and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was it. I got an Ivy League education master degree from NBC Philadelphia. Wow. I didn't stop doing my education, which I'm really glad about, but that kind of paved the way. So I don't know how I ended up doing whether I could have been a police officer, Officer Freeze. Or an ice cream dipper, or a million other things with the name Freeze. But it was so. It just so happened that this was the direction. And it hasn't. It has not been disappointing. I really have had a wonderful career and enjoyed it and so many new things on the horizon.
- [12:06]
Bree Smith
Okay, so most recently you were at Fox Weather and you were doing this national gig communicating weather. So what caused that transition away from like this traditional broadcast industry into what you're doing now?
- [12:19]
Amy Freeze
Yeah, it was interesting. I'd worked for WABC for more than 12 years, and Fox came to me and said, would you like to come and start this brand new thing we're doing? It's an app. We're going to turn it into a fast channel. It's going to be a digital stream. You can talk about as much water weather as you Want. And they weren't kidding. So we. We were basically doing weather 247 live. You think back of the good old days of the Weather Channel, very similar. And there were times when I would be on for six hours at a time doing the weather. And it was crazy. I learned so much. We're literally anchoring shows about the weather. I started a show there called Weather Command. Met a lot of great meteorologists, really enjoyed it, light working under the Fox umbrella, but it was a startup. And so I thought, you know what, I don't know if this grind is exactly long term for me, but they paid me really well. And so they said, we're going to restructure some contract stuff and we're going to make some changes in the way we're spending money. And I said, okay. Cause it had a big fat check for me at the end of it. And so I said, okay, let's do it. And so that really is how it worked out. And it was a wonderful experience. I really, really had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. But I knew that I loved local tv. I knew that there might be some more transition for me down the road. And so the timing was right. But when I finished at Fox, I took a little break and I saw some avatar. I think I saw it on the Internet somewhere. I was like, oh, I should make an avatar that people can ask me questions. It's kind of like I was a robot at work and now I could be a real robot. And that sounded funny to me. And then I thought, if nothing else, I'll make this. And then someone might steal my identity and I'll make millions of dollars. So I thought this. I literally started as entertainment. Then when I saw that it worked, I thought, wow, I wonder if an avatar could be trained to do the weather. Of course they can be trained to speak, like presentation avatars, no problem. But I was like, I wonder if it could, like, see the graphic and could it read the image and all those kinds of things. So I start my brain and wheels started turning. I got in with an AI developer. I said, let's test this out. And the number one thing that meteorologists, I think will really start to appreciate is a base map. We all know somebody, some base maps are lighter, some are darker, some are green, some are brown, some are blue. Whatever the base map is, that's one part of the visual. And then you have the data layer that goes on top, which can be radar, temperature, cities, whatever. Well, that imagery has to be tested in order to be used with technology. So when I started making the avatars to do forecast, it was like entertainment testing, sort of research and develop, if you will. So I've made more than a thousand pieces of forecast with the avatar. Now I'm not sending it out for someone to live and die by forecast. Eventually I think it will be along those lines where we can use avatars for efficiency. But what it really started out is, can this technology work for us? How could we use it? And I'm most proud of one thing so far. We developed if you trigger a watch, the National Weather Service triggers a watch. You know, SPCs put out severe weather, then they trigger a watch for the day, thunderstorm watch or tornado watch. As soon as that triggers the avatar, grabs the data, makes a graphic, makes a script for it, condenses it, and releases it in less than 45 seconds. Post the watch. So when you think about it, for us, that's a really quick reaction. Most of the time we're like, okay, can we get the cameras ready? Come on, come on, come on. So to have that, that could trigger out. And it's basically a digital twin. There's no joke. Like, I'm not trying to trick someone. It's me. It's like, hey, this is my digital twin releasing a watch. This is the data you need to know. We'll keep you updated on the alerts. So I love that. That I think is like, the best, coolest thing we've done so far. So where it goes from here maybe is everybody else's guess, But I did it on a whim, and it turned into something really cool that I got excited about. And I would say a year before, I would have not. I would have said, this is weird. This is awkward. No. Avatars could never take over. Meteorologists there have no place really, in locals. I really was. Had a much different perspective than I do now.
- [16:25]
Emily Gracie
Okay.
- [16:25]
Bree Smith
I have so many questions. You know what's interesting is when I watch your avatar, it's like a 2025 version of NOAA Weather Radio, right? Like, I remember growing up listening to, like, my dad always had no weather radio on. But, like, the way that she. You speaks, it has that same, like, kind of cadence. And it just gave me major flashbacks to listening to NOAA weather radio. But that's kind of like what it is, right? It's like a updated version of that.
- [16:51]
Amy Freeze
I would think. I would think that's a good way to describe it. It really is for data that is kind of absolute. So it's not a lot of interpretation when we create the watches. It's a little more absolute. And of course, the technology, the avatar that you saw today or even yesterday of me is the worst avatar you will ever see of Amy Freeze. Because it just gets better all the time. So it does definitely have a robotic part to it. Some of the avatars, there's two or three. Some of them are like, oh, she's really glitchy. Like, that's weird. But some of them are more smooth. And I'm like, wait, did I say that? Is that a recording or was that. So there are parts of the technology that start to look really smooth and almost realistic. And you're like, wait. And then there's other parts where it's like glitchy and sort of robotic. And, you know for sure it is. And that's. I think I want people to feel like, hey, that's the digital twin. I don't want them to go, is that Amy? Like, you know, I want them to actually have that. That vibe of this is the assistant. And this is going to sound strange and very George Jetson, but you will have an assistant, Emily. You will. You will have a digital assistant that works for you in some way. Almost all of us will in the next three.
- [18:02]
Emily Gracie
I already do.
- [18:03]
Bree Smith
You know, like, I use AI for so many things.
- [18:07]
Amy Freeze
Right.
- [18:07]
Bree Smith
It's just slowly creeping in. Okay, more questions.
- [18:12]
Amy Freeze
How.
- [18:14]
Bree Smith
What platform do you see this most successful on? Is it like. I know it's digital and it's meant to be that way. Is there like a specific social media platform where you see this really having an impact?
- [18:24]
Amy Freeze
I think hopefully Twitter will be the sort of watch alert place because I've created more than just the avatar ecosystem. I kind of went crazy. I was like, oh, gosh, I could do this, I could do this, I could do this. I found a system where I could create a radar picture map base and then put the radar data on top of it and then make the map make move with coding and AI and automation to priority hazard alerts. So it's a radar that moves by itself. It rolls on YouTube most days 24 7. And if there's a thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning, it's going to those first. Obviously in the winter, it will do winter alerts, but it's based on priority hazards. So really threat to life or property imminent is what that works on. So it's the trigger of the avatar was on. On X or Twitter and said, hey, there's a watch. Check out the warning page today that's available just almost like in the Background of your life. It's another layer of a NOAA weather radio to have a YouTube channel that tells you the alerts and working on some other kind of interesting things that'll go onto that, that stream as well. So I, I think that X is probably the best because what I want to do for myself as a meteorologist is create efficiencies and scalability. What that means is basically I can't be everywhere and do everything all the time. But if there's a watch issued and that buys me another 30 minutes to look at data or allows me to set up a call or allows me to do a little bit more research before the actual alerts start rolling, that's now created a layer of efficiency. And we all know whether we're in private, independent or still in broadcast journalism on, on television stations, they want you to do more with less. So if you can create some of those efficiencies, that's the beauty of it. And then if it's scalable, what if I were to trigger my alert and all of a sudden it came to your phone with my digital twin. Hey, there's a. Watch out. We're going to be broadcasting later today. Want to make sure you have all the alerts you need. Here's the link for that. Have a great day. Stay safe. George, you personalize it to the person because it's now automated. I can't call everybody I know, but if they sign up for a personalized alert, you get a visual. How much more effective is it when we tell people the weather versus them reading it or checking it? It's all of a sudden an invasive way for them to digest the information. So those are kind of the things that are swirling around my head when I'm thinking about using the avatar. I'm not thinking about, wow, I'm going to sleep later and the avatar can work for me. I'm not thinking about that yet. So after more than 10 years of early mornings, maybe, but yeah, no, that's not exactly the mentality that I have with it.
- [21:01]
Bree Smith
Yeah, I guess all your years of experience kind of tell you what people are looking for. But did you also do any research or like learn anything about social science and the value of people hearing from a person or something that looks like a person versus another form of getting that information? Is it more impactful?
- [21:19]
Amy Freeze
Yeah, I haven't done any social science my myself yet, but I do know of the research that's already out there and believe it or not, we still have a large percentage of middle America that still relies on outdoor alarms because that's how they grew up. You know, they grew up with that sort of generational notification. And we know that the of NOAA and the National Weather Service and federal government alerts are changing. And so we do need more than ever multiple layers to get our alerts. And that's not to say we discard the no Weather Radio. It's still our number one line of defense. But we also can have our phone apps, which are great, they're invasive, you set them up right, they're gonna, they're gonna tell you the alert you want when you need to know it. And then you also have this ability for messaging, private weather starting up, that gives people that additional layer of confidence that they can go on with their life. Remember, weather is not always a call to action. Sometimes it's a calming voice. Hey, you don't have to worry about the storms until after 4:00 clock today. So all of that messaging is really a step further than just looking at a glance of the phone. You're right. You can get your data guys any way you want it right at your fingertips on the phone. But if you want the interpretation of that data, if you want it to be more meaningful, that's where different layers come into play. And so I think for people's personalities and the way that they have adjusted their lives with technology, weather also has to adjust and make those, you know, shifts. It doesn't mean that we have to say, oh, you're only going to get your alerts from me, or you're only going to get your alerts from a TV station. Instead, we remind them that NOAA Weather Radio is number one for your safety, for you and your family, and they start to layer those other things on that should be a part of their life, a cell phone, however else they're getting it. I mean, we all have a million screens now that we're getting our information from. We can't expect people to come and find us. We have to be available for them. Does that make sense?
- [23:17]
Bree Smith
Total sense. All right, let's get into logistics of how this was done. How does one go about creating an avatar of themselves? What's the, what's the process like there? Is it like a thousand cameras pointed at you? Tell me the whole thing.
- [23:32]
Amy Freeze
The first time I made an avatar, I did it in front of a green curtain that I bought on Amazon. So I just said, let me try this and see what it was like. It gradually changed from that. Maybe before the interview's over, I'll Take you to one of the studios that I have here and show you. But it graduated to, I think I want a green screen, I think I want a cycle. Lighting is like so important because I wanted to film myself as realistically as possible. You can make an avatar in like under five minutes, but the more time, the more time you spend is your website for that. Yeah, exactly. The more time you spend in filming yourself, the better the output will be. So if you do more training of your, your, your, your characteristics, your visuals, all that kind of stuff, you're going to get a better quality output. Then after the, the physical characteristics come to life, it's the brain. And really that's where there's no way they can replace meteorologists when they're creating avatars. I'll tell you from personal experience, I have to be like, like finger on the button. Because you have to first teach the avatar what it needs to know intellectually and then you need to check that data. You need to make sure that it's on, on par. And you can't really do that like someone who's just a avatar or automation specialist. There's no way they could figure out how to interpret the data, get the data feed in, the codes, know where all the information is and then come up, out with something that sounds right. So meteorologists and any, anybody in the newsroom really that has institutional knowledge of the, the way news and, and stories are told are critical and absolutely vital to the, to the development of avatars and automation. Like, it's so funny to me to see some broadcast outlets, they're letting go of, of people who've been there a long time thinking, oh, we're going to get into new technology. You just let the brain walk out the door. You need the brain there so that you can create the automation. And so that really is very, very critical to understand. People who are coming out of school, they might have a little bit more knowledge of technology, but you actually, the storytelling component, the understanding of when data comes in, all these critical aspects of meteorological performance in order to make it work. Right. So there's the filming and taping of yourself. But then you also have so much more flexibility. Now you can create an avatar that could just present, you make the script and say digital twins say this. You could also create a interpretive type of avatar, which is the one that I have, that's looking at the data and starting to come up with analysis, you know, and then there's the interactive avatar, which is not me, this is the real me. But how do I know there's an avatar that's like me that you could ask questions to and I could respond. Like, we could. We could at some point have a virtual podcast, you and I. And I could put the digital twin here and you could ask her questions and she would probably not be as animated as me, but have a robotic response for you.
- [26:40]
Bree Smith
There's like the shallow questions, like, at any point were you like, and let's fix that blemish or let's, you know, slim me like, where you have it. I know that I would personally make myself look better than the real thing. Did you have temptation to do that?
- [26:55]
Amy Freeze
Unfortunately, that costs more.
- [26:56]
Bree Smith
More.
- [26:57]
Amy Freeze
So if you really want to look like better than yourself, you have to pay more. So I have not graduated to money making to where I've put that into the avatar to be like, make my, my waist skinnier. And in fact, all the clothes that you see me in, my avatar, that's the number one question people ask. I go, can you change your clothes in the avatar? No. Every outfit that you've seen me in, I filmed an avatar. It's a real outfit.
- [27:19]
Bree Smith
Okay.
- [27:20]
Amy Freeze
Yeah. I don't pay for the upgrade where you can have like your endless wardrobe, but that does exist. So. Yeah. No, I love that.
- [27:28]
Bree Smith
I love that because, you know, there is that fear that there's going to be this, you know, whole slew of avatars that look better than us and then we're not going to be desirable anymore.
- [27:36]
Amy Freeze
But, I mean, I think that's kind of interesting right there. And that's the kind of research I'd love to see done, is they have taken the, what I call an HR avatar or an avatar that they create automatically. That's not known. That's not a real person. And they've been testing those types of avatars with. With crowds. And to me, like, I'm turned off when I see an HR avatar. I'm like, oh, it's weird. I'm not sure about that. It's awkward. I love to hear more and more from audiences that see someone they know a digital twin. And there's a weird sort of familiarity that you kind of have and then you know that it's the. The person. So I'm really interested to see any focus groups that they can do with audiences that know people who have actually turned into a digital twin as well. Because the concept is this is your assistant. This is a person that takes the messaging and delivers it right to people. And it's an upgrade in delivery. It's not really supposed to be an upgrade in the person they're still supposed to be a part of, of the experience. Gosh.
- [28:38]
Bree Smith
And I think no better person to do this than you. Like, there's going to be backlash either way, right? But like the backlash from the weather community of somebody who has no weather background doing this and attempting this versus somebody with your background and your just the time that you spent in weather communication doing it. I think if somebody's going to pave the way, it's got to be someone like you.
- [28:59]
Amy Freeze
Definitely there's a huge responsibility factor. I mean, I've been in, I've been in doing weather for more than two decades. I don't want to do anything that's going to jeopardize my reputation or the things that I've worked hard for. So I've applied that sort of responsibility and sort of that authenticity that I want to have to it. And I'm still developing that. I'm still trying to do the best I can with that. But I will say this over the years, I promise you, embracing the change. Embracing technology is the way to continue your longevity in the career and in this industry. The more you resist change, the quicker you're going to get left behind. And I know that AI technology gives people a little bit pause because we don't know so much about it. But one thing that I've learned is that when you start to create avatars, you are then registered as a celebrity face. I don't really consider myself a celebrity, but a known face, but they call it celebrity face. And then you're. When you're a known face, every time you're going to be recreated in an avatar image, you have to have permissions given to that. So a lot of people think, oh, I'm not going to do that, because all of a sudden they're going to do this, that and the other. It's actually a protection to you that serves you well. So even if you're thinking, I don't think I ever want to do that, or I don't want anyone to use my image, it's very important that you protect yourself. And I started this thing on LinkedIn that I'm going to try to develop. I'm like, everybody join into this. We're going to have some discussions about it because nobody truly understands what's going on. It's a learning curve for me as well. But if someone would have told me that before, like I said a year ago, I would never have thought, hey, this is something I want to try, or whatever. I would have been very much against it. And now that I've learned, oh, you do have to actually do this to protect yourself, by the way. I say protect yourself, and I say that loosely because there are so many things in the cyber world that people can overrun and overdo and so forth. But there are technologies developed that can be almost like copyright marks on your images and on the sound of your voice and those things that you can trace, you know, it's nothing is 100% sure. But there's a lot of technology out there for protection, and it's important. I mean, I've really struggled so much with social media and people creating fake accounts. It's been really. It's at times been extremely discouraging. I've seen it used against me. I've seen people impersonate me and take money from people. Heartbreaking. Like, say, oh, you know, would you support this charity? Give me $5,000. And people have done it. And it's super upsetting to see. So I have struggled with that. That world of people taking advantage because they know how to work the technology system. And really, there are not a lot of protections out there. It's to get fake things taken down. It's very hard to get accounts suspended. You have to do a lot of work to do that. And so I feel like as quickly as I do that work, someone builds something else. So, you know, nothing is. Nothing is foolproof. But the charge for technology will move forward with or without you. So either you do the best you can to protect yourself and you move it forward, or you're. You're dealing with in a different way. Yeah.
- [32:06]
Bree Smith
So the offense is going to be a little easier to deal with than trying to defensively handle it.
- [32:10]
Amy Freeze
You can hope so. You can hope so.
- [32:11]
Emily Gracie
Okay, so tell me, are there any.
- [32:13]
Bree Smith
Hiccups that you've had along the way, any kind of roadblocks, things that have gone wrong as you've been doing this?
- [32:19]
Amy Freeze
This is kind of embarrassing, I'm going to tell you.
- [32:21]
Bree Smith
Oh, yeah, tell me.
- [32:22]
Amy Freeze
I mean, it's not horrifically embarrassing. So the town of Ely, Nevada, in my mind should be Eli, Nevada. Don't ask me why. I've been in the West a long time. Eadly Nevada. The avatar kept saying, Ely, Nevada. Ely, Nevada. Ely, Nevada. I'm like, this is driving me crazy. So because I was producing seven regional forecasts three times a day, there's 27 forecasts. I'm reading all of them. I'm editing just to make sure I love what it's doing. And when you edit, it also trains and copies that for future training. So anyway, I'm telling it. I'm either deleting the word and rephrasing all that, or I'm trying to make the Avatar say the city the way I want to say it. So I'm doing this. I. I've been doing this for like three months. My dad is there, and I'm like, I'm so frustrated. Why can't this. This machine learn how to say the name? My dad goes, it is Ely, Nevada. I said, no, no, it's Eli, Nevada. No, it's Ely. Mind you, I've been telling the developer, the Indian developer who lives in Northern California, I've been telling you it can't cause the city right. It's driving me crazy. I'm convinced that I'm the one saying it right. And I'm saying, this robot is so crazy, it's saying it wrong the whole time. The avatar had it right.
- [33:34]
Bree Smith
Ah, that's got to be the toughest part, is pronouncing the names. Is it pronouncing all cities, locations?
- [33:42]
Amy Freeze
Well, yes, it was pronouncing it better than I was as a human. So it also depends on the. The tier of technology you're using and stuff, how. How much better it integrates pronunciation, stuff like that. But those are things that you can actually teach the avatar. So you can teach your pronunciation. You can teach it, you know, how to say things correctly and so forth. But I kept trying to teach it the wrong thing, and it would not. So that was kind of funny and weird. But, you know, I haven't. I mean, there have been some technological glitches, but to me, I'm not trying to hide that. I. I want people to see it for what it is to see the process. That's the other reason why what we were doing it, and I was like, upload everything we have because I wanted those 1,000 pieces of technology on YouTube to be seen so people can see the evolution of the process. And so, yeah, I mean, there's weird stuff that happens anytime you're trying to make something new, but there's nothing been horrific yet. And it's crazy how wonderful the technology is, how exciting it is to think that this is possible. But, you know, when we were. When there was horse and buggies and people started driving cars away, they're like, oh, that's not gonna last. No one's gonna drive a piece of metal around. That'll never last. There are so many things in our lifetime where we've Seen the technology come along, we're like, oh, that won't last. That's not going to work. But here we are. Watching these things happen. I mean, does it seem weird to you that in several cities across America right now, cars drive themselves? It's like an Uber. You. You go on and you say, I want to do. And the car comes up and no one's in it.
- [35:17]
Bree Smith
So does anything scare you? You seem kind of fearless with this whole process. Is there anything that does make you nervous about it?
- [35:22]
Amy Freeze
I know. You know, recently we had a colleague who had just such a traumatic event to happen that had to do with, you know, impersonation and using technology to alter her and alter her actions or make it seem like she was doing something she shouldn't do. Those things are all pretty scary, but those things would happen whether we're trying new technology or not. And the more we understand it and the more we figure out ways to protect ourselves is really our only course of action, because a lot of times there's nobody to stand up and help us.
- [35:58]
Bree Smith
Going back to your avatar, I saw it, and, you know, it's interesting. This is a great way to reach a broader audience as well. Because your avatar speaks Spanish.
- [36:08]
Amy Freeze
Yeah, I speak Hindu and Japanese and Spanish. There's about eight languages, and I just yesterday did development for a full Spanish version. It's crazy. I actually took French in high school. That's about the only language that I know really well. Although if I want to brag, I will tell you. I'm on day 312 of Duolingo Spanish.
- [36:30]
Bree Smith
Duolingo is where it's at right now.
- [36:32]
Amy Freeze
Yeah. Hola, Combusta. I'm right there with you. But that's the incredible part of technology. I mean, look at the walls that are being torn down that we can interpret. For me, in my experience, New York city, there are 600 languages spoken in the five boroughs of New York. So having something as a tool where you can be multilingual or offer messaging to people, that is just a game changer. We all know that the funding went away for the alerts to be told in other languages. Don't worry. The AI world and the private world and sector will fill that gap. But it is a scary one, because if you think about some of these outdoor workers who rely on that messaging and have relied on that messaging, they now have to find, and their employers have to find a safety net for them, because we're talking about first contractors. People are out all day, and they're not looking at radars. You know, got to make sure that we have a, a safety net for them.
- [37:28]
Bree Smith
Yeah. I live in Charleston, South Carolina and two Spanish speaking individuals died last week in a rip current because there was not a proper signage in multiple language at the location they were at. They didn't know it was a dangerous spot to be.
- [37:42]
Amy Freeze
So, yeah, it's terrifying. It's terrifying. And there has been a certain level of expectation and reliance on that messaging. So then when it's taken away and you don't, not everybody knows. And it's also, that's also another, it's kind of a blow to the, to, to what's been done, the work and progress that was in place. Okay.
- [38:00]
Bree Smith
Any great goals in the future? Anything that you, you're very innovative with.
- [38:04]
Emily Gracie
Your thoughts so far.
- [38:05]
Bree Smith
So I'm curious what you're thinking about, what you'll do next or where this is headed.
- [38:08]
Amy Freeze
I've got some really cool ideas. I really, really, I'll say this, I didn't realize that you could do anything you wanted or learn anything you wanted on YouTube. Like literally. I changed my refrigerator filter with YouTube. So I've learned a lot. And sometimes I go down Rabbit holes on YouTube Learning different things about the weather, not necessarily refrigerator filters, but I think that if there's anything you want to do and you're thinking about trying, there's a whole world out there that will help explain it to you daily. There are new apps and innovations that, that continue to do stuff. I would like to refine my 24 hour stream. I have a 24 hour stream on YouTube right now. I'd like to make that radar more efficient. I'd like to make a few more changes to the entertainment value as long as, as well as the meteorological value to it. And I'd like to add some other programming to it. So for me, I do have some big things coming. I'm still working on them. So I like that. But I just love the idea of empowering other meteorologists to do a career that they're excited about and not, not fearing what, what the future might hold for them. Let's think of it optimistically and let's find the path that works best for us.
- [39:21]
Bree Smith
And I've seen you say it over and over again that they're, they're still needed, they're still valuable, that real meteorologist is always going to be essential, irreplaceable.
- [39:29]
Amy Freeze
In a severe weather event. Irreplaceable. They have the knowledge of the cities, they have the knowledge of the dynamics and they can do it. A real time, quick way. Now, never say never for technology, but no one's advocating for that at this point, at least. No one that I know of is advocating for meteorologists to be replaced by an avatar. What a digital twin or an avatar should do for you is enhance what you're already doing and make it easier for you to do the most possible. The most possible. So figuring out ways that the avatar can create weather, education can create certain messaging, all those things are valuable tools in a world where you are expected to do more with less.
- [40:12]
Bree Smith
Amy, is there anything else you want to add about this project that you're working on?
- [40:16]
Amy Freeze
No. Thanks for checking it out. I'd love to get feedback on it, positive or negative. I'll take it. And if other people have ideas, I'm going to start that group there on LinkedIn. I think that'll be a place where we can exchange ideas. And I love your podcast. It's just really fun to see you doing this and being so successful. I think you're over 100 episodes, aren't you? Yeah. Yeah. Well, over 100. Okay. I started the podcast the first season. I was like, this is so hard. This is so hard. It's so much different. And then season two, I talked to all meteorologists who are my friends, and so I loved it. I was like, this is great. I'm definitely doing this. So the podcasting is a new world. It's interesting, and I think it's a great way for people to exercise the industry possibilities. Right. I'm sure you've talked to so many people and learned so many things by. By asking the questions. Right.
- [41:07]
Bree Smith
It's such an easy interface because I'm just naturally curious about these things, and so I'm just asking them as I go. I write all these notes, and then I ask none of the things I wrote down. And I wind up just going on this tangent because I'm following whatever they're talking about, and it's.
- [41:22]
Amy Freeze
It's great.
- [41:22]
Bree Smith
I. I love it so much. Where can people find your podcast?
- [41:25]
Amy Freeze
Um, it's on all the places people stream from YouTube. Amy. Freeze TV is the. Is the YouTube channel for that. I now have a Roku app that's coming out. I also have something called amyfreeze tv, by the way. I created an entire ecosystem that's about me. But the reason I did this.
- [41:46]
Bree Smith
Due to the ego.
- [41:47]
Amy Freeze
Yeah. I'm like. The reason I did this is I kept saying, I don't want to create something that requires me to be there at the center of it. All the time. Yet that's exactly what I created. But the reason I did it, because I was like, can I do that? I wonder if I could do that. Let me see if I could do that. And all of a sudden I started seeing all these things. A livestream, a podcast, an avatar, my own content, my own this. I want people to see that you can create something based on your brand if you have it, or scoot your brand over and create something brand new. There are no limits. And so I hope that when people see what I'm doing, they don't become reliant on Amy Freeze, the avatar amy freeze.com Although I do think the app that I have as a phone app out, it's pretty cool. But other than that, I want people to be empowered by the concept of yourself. Branding or branding something brand new and you having the power to do it does take planning, does take hard work. I think I've probably maybe one job I worked harder than I am right now. That's it.
- [42:51]
Bree Smith
So rewarding, though.
- [42:52]
Amy Freeze
Yeah.
- [42:52]
Bree Smith
Awesome. Amy Freeze, thank you so much for your time today.
- [42:55]
Amy Freeze
You got it. See you later.
- [42:59]
Emily Gracie
Off the Radar is a production of the National Weather Desk. Make sure you're following the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes publish every Tuesday. Thank you to today's guests, Amy Fries and Bri Smith. If you're a victim of deep fakes, please reach out to Bri. She shared her email. It's Bri briesunshinesmith.com if you didn't get all that, just slide into my DMs on Instagram or LinkedIn and I will put you in touch.
- [43:24]
Amy Freeze
Touch.
- [43:24]
Emily Gracie
Or if you're interested in learning how to take control of your image, reach out to Amy Freeze. Thanks to the National Weather Desk and Sinclair Broadcast Group for their ongoing support of the podcast. And as always, thank you to my associate producer, Brian Petras for his help writing this episode on meteorologist Emily Gracie. Make it a great day.